2/5 Australian General Hospital

Lte Hazel Lewis (Bryce) 

NFX136190

On the 20 May 1942 at the age of twenty four, as a Nursing Sister, Hazel enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, (AANS) -- and was assigned to the 2/5 Australian General Hospital. A month later she received a letter to report to Victoria Barracks in Sydney, where she was given her full kit, Uniform and a train ticket to Goulburn. Along with twenty other Sisters she was to report to the Kenmore Mental Asylum, to set up and be ready for the arrival of incoming soldiers from the Middle East, who were suffering from psychiatric and skin conditions.

After fifteen months at Goulburn, Hazel was transferred to Concord Hospital --113 AGH -- in August 1943 for six weeks prior to being sent for overseas duty. In September 1943 they travelled to Brisbane, and there embarked on the Hospital Ship Manunda and sailed to Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea. This group comprising of 250 Sisters and Physiotherapists, was to be reinforcements for all four hospitals already established on the Island.

In March 1944 the 2/5 Australian General Hospital Unit returned to Australia, but some of the staff, Hazel included, were seconded to the 128 Camp Hospital, and remained with that Unit until August 1944, when they returned to Australia. Hazel was then posted to the 113 AGH at Concord, and was finally discharged on 4 October 1946, after serving four and a half years in Army Service.